Weekend arts picks: Aug. 19-21

Music: The Argentine violinist Tomás Cotik, who has made a strong career for himself with well-received discs of music by Schubert and Piazzolla, will be departing South Florida at the end of this month to take a job teaching at Portland State University in Oregon. His exit from the local scene is a real loss, but before he goes, he’ll be giving two concerts of music from his latest project, a recording of the complete Mozart sonatas on Centaur Records with the fine pianist Tao Lin. Tonight at All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale, he and Lin will play the final three sonatas in a concert beginning at 7:30 p.m (tickets are $25, available at the door). If you can’t make it tonight, you can catch him doing this same program at the same time on Aug. 27 at Miami Lakes Congregational Church in Hialeah, which will be his last appearance before he heads to the Northwest. This will be expert music making by a musician who delves deep into everything he plays. And take a moment to thank him for his work over the years in groups such as the Delray and Amernet string quartets, and wish him well.

Theater: Never one to shrink from tough topics, GableStage’s Joe Adler directs a frank drama about child abuse, Stalking the Bogeyman, and its aftermath. Taylor Miller is featured as journalist David Holthouse, abused as a 7-year-old by his 17-year-old neighbor, a violation that has him vengeful and homicidal as a grown-up. The play, based on his articles for a Denver alternative paper, may not tell us much new about the motives of molesters, but it sure makes for gripping theater, particularly in the confrontations between Miller and Alex Alvarez as the perpetrator, a character identified only as “The Bogeyman.” Barbara Sloan leads the ensemble of parents and assorted other support roles in a production that packs a lot in its mere 70-minute running time. Through Aug. 28. Call 305-445-1119.

Film: Don’t Think Twice, written and directed by stand-up comic Mike Birbiglia, is a drama about comedy, specifically improv. Birbiglia knows the territory well and his scenes backstage and onstage with a troupe called The Commune have a feel of authenticity. The group has success in its small, local pond, but the conflict arises when a scout from a network TV show that broadcasts live on Saturday nights – Sound familiar? – scouts them and offers an audition to the big leagues to Jack (a very appealing Keegan-Michael Key of Comedy Central’s Key & Peele). When he lands the gig, hiss previously supportive colleagues turn envious and resentful. Playing beginning this weekend at Boca Raton’s Living Room Theaters, and well worth seeking out.

Art: The American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died 28 years ago this month of a heroin overdose at age 27, would surely have been heavily engaged in art and politics were he alive today. Last year, the Brooklyn Museum offered a show of Basquiat’s notebooks, full of wordplay and drawings that shed additional light on the elements of his creativity, and last week, that show, Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks, opened at the Perez Museum of Art in Miami. The 160 pieces in this exhibit include early sketches for Basquiat’s Famous Negro Athletes, one of his most important works. The show runs through Oct. 12 at the Perez, which is open daily except Wednesdays. Admission is $16; visit pamm.org for more information.